


The Virus

by HanShootsFirst



Category: Original Work
Genre: Computer Viruses, Computers, Death, Dystopia, Extinction, Future, Future Fic, Science Fiction, Virus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 06:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19312120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanShootsFirst/pseuds/HanShootsFirst
Summary: Thousands of years into the future, a virtual virus breaks out, causing Dr. Saros Cromwell to go to desperate measures to fix it before it's too late.WINNER OF NCTE WRITING COMPETITION





	The Virus

"How long does he have?"

I jolted up at the sound of Cassiopiea Wildbie's frantic voice from the doorway that was never supposed to be opened or closed by anyone but me, no matter the situation. But I let it slide, as this appeared to be dire.

"I-I'm not sure," I replied as I hastily went back to the patient, my hands trembling as I cut another pair of wires, guiding them back together, fusing them.

"How much longer do they have?"

"Do me a favor and watch the Holo, okay?" I said, ignoring her question entirely. I already knew the answer; the case was hopeless unless I could get this done before they stop breathing. But let the Goddess come and strike me down herself before I admit that.

She let out a sob, which I assumed meant Okay Doctor Cromwell.

Then I went back to work.

Reattaching the wires proved to be easier than I thought. It was trying to figure out what had gone wrong that was the issue.

The patient, Delvin Wildbie, had his Thought program updated to the most efficient version only a few moon cycles ago; surely nothing could go wrong already.

Nothing appeared to be wrong. I had been doing this job since 9764 - I would know if something was wrong.

But nonetheless, there we were.

I continued to tear apart wires, searching for a hint. Any sign of something I could fix, something to save Delvin.

As I tore open the last wire, a thin one tinted blue, my heartbeat seemed to stop. The direct signal for Thought communication appeared normal at a first glance, but with a moderate amount of inspection you could see a tiny flaw in the system - a little golden bead that the naked eye of a human would never have been able to see. Luckily, with the vision implants we created about 90 moon cycles ago, we could.

"Holy Goddess..."

"W-what is it?"

I let go of the wires instantly, mentally scrolling through my Thought contacts until I found the one labeled Arlington Greer, the technology specialist in our company, and probably the smartest person I had ever met.

Big issue with a Thought in room CVII. Come now. I Thought to him as quickly as I could. Only moments later, he replied, sending a small vibrating sensation through my head, shocking me. I had helped invent this system, yet it still surprises me every time I got a new message.

On my way.

*

"What on earth?"

I watched as Doctor Arlington Greer fiddled with the wires, examining the bead from different perspectives. He kept repeating the same phrase over and over "What on earth, what on earth, what on earth?"

Keeping my composure in front of him was a bigger challenge than one might have thought, even in a situation like this. My head was pounding with a pain almost unbearable, probably because of Vision Implants overuse, which didn't help keep me from sounding like a bumbling idiot.

"What's going on?"

Arlington turned to me, his hazy brown eyes shining with shock as my face burned a bright scarlet. "There's something wrong with the Thought....some sort of a...disease, almost."

I blinked. "But...that's impossible! Their Thought was just installed a couple cycles ago!"

I glanced over at the Holo, which monitored Delvin's heartbeat. The little line went up and down, in fast rhythmic patterns. He was still okay, for now at least.

Arlington sighed, scribbling something down on a piece of Teleportation - another thing we invented rather recently. "I don't think the problem was from his Thought...I think it was sent from someone else."

"Like a computer virus?"

Computers were now extremely rare to find, untouched by people with my profession since the 28th century. The only reason I know they exist is from my last year of Primary school, when we had a lesson on them in history class. They taught us what something called a "Hack" was, as well as a "Virus", where someone or something broke into the computer and screwed everything up.

Goddess above, people were weird back then...

"A what?"

"A computer virus...a couple thousand years ago they spread from one computer to another from simple things, such as their version of Thought...texting, I believe it was called. It was treated like a real virus though, like the Plague, because it spread like wildfire. It would screw around with the system, stealing information, deleting files, sometimes shutting it down completely, like the computer would go into a coma-like state."

Arlington nodded. "Then yes, Delvin has some form of a 'Virus' going on. But the question is, how do we fix it before it's too late?"

Cass, who I had forgotten was there, started sobbing again. "Doctor Cromwell....i-if it's like...contagious, does that mean it's spreading?"

"Yes...I suppose that is the case, Mrs. Wildbie." Arlington answered for me, his tone grim.

She began to cry even harder. "W-what are we going to do then?"

Arlington seemed at loss for an answer, so I stepped up. "I suppose we will have to shut down the system...before it spreads even more."

He nodded, walking quickly towards the door. "I'm going to go confirm the plan with Doctor Ceres. Stay here." He turned around and looked me in the eyes. "Whatever you do, do not leave. Understood?"

"Understood." I replied automatically.

"Good."

And with that he left.

*

"WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING CASSIOPEIA?!"

Cass turned around, appearing hysterical. "We have to alert the staff! Then they can have it broadcasted to the world before it's too late!"

"No! Arlington said to wait here while he checks in with Doctor Ceres." I insisted, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from the door.

She wrestled out of my grasp. "Who even is that?!"

"Are you actually serious? She's the main inventor of the Thought system!" I practically shouted, locking the door.

"Saros, listen to me!"

No one ever used my first name, especially not at work, and that shocked me. I looked over at her, wide eyed.

Cass took a deep, shaky breath and continued. "Delvin is dying. And so could the entire human race. We need to stop this before it spreads even more."

I couldn't disagree with that.

*

"The information's on Live Holo right now," the woman at the desk said to me.

"Oh thank the Goddess." I let out a deep sigh. Cass, who was next to me, started crying for what seemed like the thousandth time this day. Out of grief for Delvin or relief for humanity, I didn't know.

I felt bad about Delvin.

At this point, he wasn't dead, but near it, and we had no way to stop it. The virus had infected him beyond repair. He was gone, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

That thought brought tears to my eyes, which rarely happened given that during my vision implants surgery, they damaged my tear ducts more than I would have preferred. But at least the entire world was saved. We ignored Arlington's orders and told our head broadcaster to tell the world to shut off their Thoughts, before the virus could spread any further. I felt like a hero and a villain at the same time. I helped save humankind, but I disobeyed Arlington.

"Doctor Cromwell," the woman at the desk said, derailing my train of thought. "Are you going to disable your Thoughts too?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course." I jumped up in alarm.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and entering my Thought. I knew how to do this, but I never had. No one did, as there was never an apparent reason to do so until now.

I entered the settings, then a few other tabs, before I found Disable in tiny white words. I didn't hesitate to click it.

My Thought went black, and I opened my eyes.

Silence.

"Well?" Cass said spectically after a few moments.

"I-" I began, but was cut off. Arlington and Doctor Ceres burst through the door, into the broadcasting room and looking panicked.

"SAROS CROMWELL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Doctor Ceres shouted, frantically pacing back and forth.

"W-what do you mean?" My face went white as an Alaskan winter, my headache worse and worse by the minute, and my vision began to go slightly fuzzy. But that didn't matter - what mattered was Doctor Ceres and Arlington both looking absolutely terrified.

"You can't turn off the Thought system!" Arlington said as he tried to calm down Ceres, rubbing her shoulder, though he was trembling himself. "Our bodies have adapted to them so much that they have become a part of our brains. Shutting it off will kill you in minutes!"

"Wait..." I blinked, trying to process what I had just been told. But my brain began to fail me. I had turned off my Thought. Did that mean-

"You just told everyone to kill themselves!"

"I-"

"Our entire population is doomed! You need to fix this before-SAROS!"

Arlington rushed towards me as my legs suddenly lost all feeling, and I tumbled down to the ground. I had no time to process what was happening; my head and my vision went hazy until there was nothing left to look at. The last thing I thought was how I ruined everything, a guilt I knew I could never live with.

Luckily, I didn't have to.


End file.
